Supporters and opponents battle over Ghana’s anti-LGBT law

Earlier today, Ghana’s parliament held the first public hearing on a new law that would make it illegal to be gay or to advocate for gay rights, its press office said, TopNaija reports.

Anti-LGBT rhetoric often consists of moral panic or conspiracy theory. In Eastern Europe, these conspiracy theories are based on earlier antisemitic conspiracy theories and posit that the LGBT movement is an instrument of foreign control and domination.

The so-called family values bill is currently before the Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, which said it had received more than 150 memoranda from individuals, groups and faith-based organisations on the bill.

The private members’ bill is being championed by eight members of parliament, namely;

1. Sam George (MP, Ningo-Prampram)
2. Della Sowah (MP, Kpando)
3. Emmanuel Bedzrah (MP, Ho West)
4. John Ntim Forjour (MP, Assin South)
5. Alhassan Suhuyini (MP, Tamale North)
6. Rita Sowah (MP, La Dadekotopon)
7. Helen Ntoso (MP, Krachi West)
8. Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor (MP, South Dayi)

Below are some 10 key things the bill is proposing:

• Individuals of the same sex who engage in sexual intercourse are to be fined between 50 and 5,000 penalty units or face a jail term of between 3 years and 5 years, or both.

• Persons who use any medium or technological platform to produce, procure, market, broadcast, disseminate, publish or distribute materials with the intention of promoting LGBTQI+ activities face a jail term of between 5 and 10 years.

• All LGBTQI+ groups, associations, clubs and organizations to be disbanded. Anyone found guilty to be jailed between 6 and 10 years.

• Proscription of sex with or marriage to an animal

• Ban on same-sex marriage and marriage to someone who has undergone sex reassignment

• Anyone who funds or sponsors activities of LGBTQI+ groups or individuals to be jailed between 5 and 10 years
• LGBTQI+ persons not to be granted application to adopt or foster a child or children

• Persons of the same sex who make public show of amorous relationship to face jail term of between 6 months and a year.

• Anyone who physically or verbally assaults, abuses or harasses a person accused of being LGBTQI+ to be fined between 500 penalty units and 1,000 penalty units or to be jailed between 6 months and a year.

• Persons accused of being LGBTQI+ should be granted access to medical assistance if they make such a request during the period of their incarceration.

The committee is expected to hear 10 petitions each week in a series of public sessions before the bill is put to a vote, deputy majority leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, said.

Gay sex is already punishable by prison time in Ghana, but no one has been prosecuted in years.

The new bill would go much further, criminalising the promotion and funding of LGBT+ activities as well as public displays of affection, cross-dressing and more.

Ghana’s speaker of parliament, Alban Bagbin, pledged in his opening address last month that parliament would pass the bill into law “at the earliest possible time’’.

U.N. human rights experts have urged lawmakers to reject it, saying it would establish a system of state-sponsored discrimination and violence against sexual minorities.

LGBT+ rights groups in Ghana said they have seen a spike in homophobic attacks since the draft law was introduced in August.

Arbitrary arrests, blackmail and evictions have more than doubled since then, with people targeted if they are suspected of being gay, said Danny Bediako, director of the human rights organisation Rightify Ghana.

“Our greatest worry is the health and safety of our community members,’’ he told Reuters.

“I have never seen so many people who want to leave the country.’’

The bill has been promoted by conservative Christian groups in Ghana, which has become a hot spot for the debate on LGBT+ rights in Africa.

The United States-based World Congress of Families (WCF), a group that works to advance anti-gay laws and policies around the world, held a major regional conference in Ghana’s capital Accra in 2019.

Anti-LGBT rhetoric are themes, catchphrases, and slogans that have been used against homosexuality or other non-heterosexual sexual orientations in order to demean lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. They range from the demeaning and the pejorative to expressions of hostility towards homosexuality which are based on religious, medical, or moral grounds. It is a form of hate speech which is illegal in countries such as the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden.